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Sedans Pontiac G8 2008 Pontiac G8
1265 messages, Last post on Jul 21, 2009 at 10:14 AM
You are in the Pontiac G8 Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Finally an excellent comment and question. The obvious answer is in this thread. I have stated nothing but facts in these in this thread. The V6 Camry is unreliable. Toyota has had many reliability issues as of late with the Camry, Tundra camshafts, etc. The 08 Camry I test drove had several rattles coming from what seemed the front struts. That is ignoring the fact that it was much less satisfying to drive in the twisties than the Fusion (took both cars side by side). The fusion, Milan, MKZ are very reliable. American vehicles are more reliable than vehicles from Europe. Mercury, Lincoln, Buick, Jaguar, & Cadillac are more reliable than Nissan, Infinity & Mitsubishi. Furthermore, they are tied on reliability with Honda, & Toyota. Yet look at all the stupid comments from posts in this Blog. The Pontiac is only reliable because it isn’t made here. Toyota & Honda are currently benchmarks for reliability. Cars built in Europe are built much better and reliable than American cars. Nobody seems to mention the vette ZO6 with its amazing 600HP pushrod engine. Or the Viper which is most likely exciting vehicle on the planet to drive fast. Even the G8 is a balanced RWD sedan with an American pushrod V8 built by a GM plant in Australia. The CTS V can run away from most of the competition. The large Chryslers have awesome hemi engines, etc and don’t fall of the road like an Avalon when the road is not perfectly straight. GMs large trucks are the most fuel efficient. Look at Acura. A supposedly high-end Honda that has 60% of its weight on the front tires. The first thing taught in racing school is to keep equal weight front to rear using gas and brakes. Acura charges the premium price like Mercedes, BMW, etc yet they serve up torque steer like no tomorrow. Step on the gas the front tires get lighter and lighter as all of the weight shits to the back of the car. The faster you accelerate the lighter the drive wheels get. This is what Japan gave us. One person in this blog thought he was an expert because he owned about 5-6 cars and thought his reliability test results were far superior to JD powers & Consumer Reports who send out thousands of surveys. Yet I just gave my last two American vehicles to my kids who just got their licenses. They both have over 150k miles. I also drove a Crown Vic 280k miles (original engine and transmission). Somebody registered it after me. Just look at all the crap in these posts made by “masters of misinformation”. If you believe the crap from these posts, American vehicles would have to be far superior to their foreign rivals to be rated equal because everyone wants to drive America into the ground. I can’t tell you how many engineers I worked with that wanted to see the only successful American company (Microsoft) torn apart for being a monopoly. The engineers would have felt much better if it was Sony. Let’s face it, if American cars are inferior you can see why. Look at all these careless error burdened posts made right here by the same Americans who may be designing are cars. How can you expect American’s who can’t even read and retain simple reliability studies accurately to design and build a decent car. And let’s not forget the dumbest American’s of all who work for the United Auto Unions and kept on striking for better insurance, higher wages, more breaks, more power and legacy layoff packages as their companies were going under because they could not compete with their foreign rivals that don’t carry all the legacy baggage. I believe the surcharge to pay these benefits to employees amounted to a $2500 per vehicle deficit over the foreign rivals. The G8 is an excellent car for the money It blows away Nissan, Toyota & Honda in most drivability tests while it serves up more room and maintains a decent ride. Enough said???
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Replying to: mrpushrod (Sep 22, 2008 7:07 pm) As for the other comments, the G8 is great because it's not made here. Period. If it was, it would ride like a Grand Prix. It doesn't! Thank GOODNESS! The business model of the US manufacturers continues to drive them into sub-par desirability, and therefore sales follows. I am far below expert and so are all of the customers who are flocking to the Asians.  As far as the Germans, the performance blows away all but a few high end US halo cars. You don't drive a US car if you DESIRE TO DRIVE! BTW, the last time I saw dealers being built in my area, they ALL REPRESENTED FOREIGN MANUFACTURERS! It must be my imagination!  Regards, OW |
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Nice posting. At least you did not misrepresent the initial quality study or the JD powers 4 year reliability study. Lets hope it is Honda or Toyota that comes up with the first good electric car. Or better yet, China. I just hope someday all of this affects your income. I seen a lot of American engineers cry when development went to India because their engineers were making 25K NOT 125k a year. And BTW, I am glad gas is  $4 a gal because China is fighting us for it to produce products for lazy Americans that can't even read reliability studies accurately. I can't believe you think the UAW union with its hight paid & insured workers dis not affect the big three.
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Replying to: mrpushrod (Sep 23, 2008 6:05 am) Smile!  Regards, OW |
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Many mistakes made in the past 30 years. Poor marketing and bad quality which started when we retooled to convert from RWD to FWD Many innovations too such as the minivan, SUV, even the first Antilock brakes in the old Tbirds & Lincolns. That said, it is inaccurate to say we do not produce reliable vehicles or all our vehicles are junk. I have read this over a 100 times in these postings and it just goes to show the uphill battle the big three face. Even when the reliability is equal American's keep trying to drive them to their grave. These same people don't have a clue. Some of them base their advise and decisions on a couple of old samples rather than thousands of surveys. I would still rather drive a big Chrysler, CTS, G8 or even a Lincoln Town car then a FWD Avalon. You may laugh, but I hate fighting a steering wheel during hard acceleration. Even Cadillac realized how wrong Japan was with this setup and changed all but one of its vehicles back to RWD. That is more than you can say for Honda's high-end Acura division. Furthermore, the G8 has a American pushrod V8 which makes it lighter, smaller in physical size, more torque & most importantly it has a lower center of gravity than OHC engines. The G8 was produced by GM, be it the Holden division and really doesn't have much competition from Japan which produces mostly appliances at that price point. Better yet when a vehicles is sold the profit stays in America NOT Japan.
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Replying to: mrpushrod (Sep 23, 2008 10:11 am) -mike
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Replying to: paisan (Sep 23, 2008 3:27 pm)  Yep, my name is at the top of the page as Host.  And no, I won't be closing it down, but I am going to insist that derogatory comments about the intelligence of other members in this discussion cease immediately. Thanks for your future cooperation! |
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Anyone know why there seems to be no star ratings from crash test for the G8? Thanks
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Replying to: circlew (Sep 16, 2008 9:57 am) Unfortunately, the GP, like many other cherished namesakes in the American car industry, has lost it's luster over the years. The majority of people under 35 or so hear Gran Prix and think of those years of unrefined powertrains and gaudy plastic that Pontiac slapped on every doggone thing. They don't think of the big-block, six-pack variations that were awesome! They needed to come out with new names to break from the history that's etched in so many minds. Plus, I think they sound sportier than Bonneville or Gran Prix. IMO, GTO, Z28, 350Z, 911.......they just sound better. Now, I grew up in a GM household, mainly Olds, Buick, and Chevys. My dad still has the '70 Chevelle SS 396 that he bought in '72 OR '73. My 1st two cars were a '64 Impala (327 Turbo-fire) and a '78 Cutlass (305-V8 4-barrel). After my beautiful Cutlass was totalled (rear-ended on the way to school one morning), I got a Honda Accord hatchback. I was elated--probably because most of the upper class kids drove Jap cars and I liked the manual tranny for dumping the clutch. I put a 180k on it before selling it to a former neighbor who continued driving it for many years. I think bought a Mazda 626 which I sold with 247k miles on it. Next I bought a '96 Maxima which I just sold a year ago with just under 250k miles on it and, other than a starter, radiator, and temp sensor, I never did more than scheduled maintenance on it. All of them were in good running condition when I sold them. All this to say that I've been on of those, "I like how some of the US cars look, but I'll always by Japanese" people....until recently. The US has always had a car here or there that I would "take a chance and buy", like the Marauder, '94-'96 Impala SS, and GTO. I just tend to put a lot of miles on a car and I've been spoiled by my Japanese models, so I have to feel that I can get 200k on a car w/out problems before I buy it. I broke down (bad choice of words)and bought a Ford Exploder.....oops! I mean Explorer...... because we were starting a family and wanted the room. MISTAKE! Including the transmission that crapped out around 80k, I spent waaaaay more in repairs in the 4 years we had it than I spent in 9 years of owning my Maxima, so we dumped it and got an Infiniti for my wife to drive. Couldn't be happier with that. I personally am a Nissan guy, and still drive a Maxima. HOWEVER, I love the G8. I was planning on getting an Infiniti M after my current Maxima, but if the first few years prove them to be reliable and sturdy, I'm about 80% sure that will be my next car. It invokes the same classic, big, muscle car feeling that are reminiscent of "the good ol' days" like the '95 Impala SS, but does so in a MUCH better package. The interior and ride quality are light years ahead of past efforts, and are world-class. WAY TO GO PONTIAC!!! Now, if we could just get a comparable RWD Chevy....... |
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Replying to: paisan (Sep 22, 2008 5:18 pm) BTW, I'm really hoping for some good GM card promotions in December (like the 5K for my GTO in 2004) As much as I love our good ole' Trooper, a nice G8 instead (and for cheap) will be a good way to prop up the Australian economy and put Exxon back on track
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